1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the distribution of messages and more precisely to the distribution of information or advertising messages to mobile terminals.
2. Description of the Related Art
A business or other entity, which may be termed an advertising entity (advertiser), often offers some form of special values or discounts in an advertising message (advertisement) to entice potential consumers to purchase goods and/or services. These discounts are often distributed to consumers in the form of redeemable coupons, conventionally in a paper format. More recently, prior art systems and methods have been devised for distributing coupons electronically. Some services make coupons available on the Internet. A user may then retrieve one or more of the coupons from a web site and may print the retrieved coupons on his printer. In a variation of this system described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,761,648, coupons are electronically distributed, rather than retrieved from a web site, and printed on a printer. In yet another system, such as the system described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,710,886, coupons are distributed on a diskette and printed at home.
The advertising entity may wish to generate the content of an advertising message that is transmitted to mobile terminal users dynamically depending on the number of registered mobile terminal users that are in the vicinity of the advertising entity's premises. One reason for this is to be able to distribute the electronic coupons (“e-coupons”), which herein includes any promotional message or special offer that offers potential customers discounts or other promotions, where the monetary value of the coupon or the promotional message that is distributed will vary depending on the number of registered mobile terminal users that are in the vicinity of the advertising entity's premises. The controlling of the distribution of e-coupons and other promotional messages to mobile terminal users gives advertisers and advertising entities a method of effectively controlling the advertising costs. It would be advantageous to provide a system and method to perform this function.
In addition to obtaining discounts, mobile terminals users often wish to know their location. A global positioning system (GPS) may be incorporated for this purpose into a mobile terminal. However, the GPS may not function properly especially in cities where tall buildings may interfere with the necessary signals. It would therefore also be advantageous to provide a way for mobile terminal users to be able to obtain location information at their mobile terminals where GPS signals are unavailable.
Commonly-owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/471,875, filed Dec. 23, 1999, entitled Method and Apparatus for Providing Precise Location Information Through a Communications Network describes a method and apparatus for a user to ascertain his geographic location using his mobile terminal. Such information can be used to locate, for example, nearby business establishments, like a gas or automotive repair station. It would be advantageous to be able to use such terminal location information to send a mobile terminal user advertising messages for these nearby establishments/advertising entities, including electronic coupons for discounts or other promotions to be used at these nearby establishments.